As the term suggests, data compression involves the compressing, or reduction in size, of data. Consequently, data compression typically results in a reduction in the amount of communication bandwidth consumed when the compressed data is transferred over a communication network or connection. In some examples, data compression may be “lossless,” in which the original pre-compression data may be completely reconstructed from the compressed data. In other implementations, the data compression may be “lossy,” in which the original data may not be reconstructed completely or perfectly. Lossy data compression is often employed in applications, such as audio compression or image compression, in which perfect reproduction of the original data is unimportant for the expected use of that data. In other examples, such as remote replication of data for disaster recovery and similar backup purposes, applications often employ lossless compression so that all of the compressed data may be reproduced in its original form for subsequent use by the enterprise or other entity relying on the presence of that data.
In the example of remote replication and other data backup-and-restore functions, the data to be saved is often compressed at the data source and subsequently transmitted over a network to a data target that is geographically remote from the source so that the data may be transmitted more quickly over the network (both from the data source to the target and vice-versa). The remote storing of the data is often desirable for disaster recovery, as a single disaster is unlikely to affect the data at both the local and the remote locations. Oftentimes, an operator of the data source manually determines whether a particular set or stream of data to be replicated is to be compressed prior to transmission. The operator may make such a determination based on any number of static factors, such as the amount of data to be replicated and the relative importance of the data.
It is with these observations in mind, among others, that aspects of the present disclosure were conceived.